To know when people like your submissions, answer your questions, reply to you, etc., please create a free account and log in. Premium membership is also available for just $12 a year, which removes all adverts, prioritises your submissions, and more.

Trivia: "Meltdown" was originally planned to be the first episode of Series IV of Red Dwarf. However, the militaristic tone of this episode - and in particular Dave Lister's strident anti-war speech near the end of the episode - meant it fell foul of the BBC censors. The original planned transmission date (Feb 14 1991) coincided with the outbreak of "Operation Desert Storm" - the Gulf War...and the BBC felt that an "anti-war" episode of Red Dwarf would be inappropriate for a country at war with Iraq.

Trivia: Originally the Cat's alter ego from Ace's dimension was supposed to be a slobby janitor, but the cast felt having a black man as a janitor could be construed as a negative stereotype, so the character was changed to a priest.

Trivia: In this episode only, the part of Kryten was played by David Ross. It was only later, during the writing of the scripts for Series III, that the decision was made to make Kryten a regular member of the cast. As David Ross wasn't available, the part went to Robert Llewelyn, who has played Kryten ever since.

Trivia: Graham Chapman (of Monty Python fame) was offered, and accepted the role of the newsreader. However, he died shortly afterward. Director Ed Bye's wife Ruby Wax was subsequently cast in the 'Blaize Falconberger' role.

Trivia: In the episode 'Backwards', Kryten and Rimmer are fired by the nightclub owner for the fight. However, the man is not really saying anything about a fight. The reversed translation is actually like this: "You are a stupid square headed bald git aren't you. I'm pointing at you, but I'm not actually addressing you. I'm addressing the one prat in the entire country who's bothered to get hold of this recording, turn it round and actually work out the rubbish that I'm saying. What a poor sad life he's got. Your act's crap, anyway I hate the lot of you."

Trivia: During the famous 'double polaroid' scene, the look of shock and horror on Lister's face is real. The double polaroid apparently was a real picture of someone's genitals but nobody had told Craig Charles about it. Even Robert Llewelyn (Kryten) was in on the joke and the look on Lister's face is totally real.

Trivia: On the DVD, you can watch this episode backwards. This way, not only can you find out roughly how they made this episode and find out what 'reversed' people are saying, you can hear someone shout 'ACTION' right before the brawl scene.

Trivia: The part of Kochanski was originally to have been played by actress Alexandra Pigg (best known for the 1985 movie 'Letter to Bhreznev'). However, just two days into rehearsals, production of Series 1 of "Red Dwarf" was halted by a strike of technicians at the BBC. The production of "Red Dwarf" had to be rescheduled, and Pigg was not available for the new dates. So the part was re-cast to C.P.Grogan (former lead singer of the band 'Altered Images') who played Kochanski throughout series 1 & 2

Trivia: The Star Wars-style (if you can slow it down) scrolly mentions what happened in between series 2 and 3. In short, it mentions what happened to Kryten (he crashed Lister's space bike on a planet and the crew managed to rescue him again), and the twins (Jim and Bexley - they were sent to the parallel universe as they were growing far too quickly).

Trivia: In Timeslides (Series 3), after the crew finds out they have a limited time machine Kryten says "Just think, we could go to Dallas 1963, stand on the Grassy Knoll and shout duck," an unintentional reference to Tikka To Ride (Series 7) where we find out that they were the men on the Grassy Knoll in Dallas 1963.

Trivia: The scene where Rimmer comes face to face with the Grim Reaper was a last minute change/addition to the script. Because it was done at the last minute, there was no time to cast an actor for the part (nor any money to pay one). The part of Death was played in this episode by producer/director Ed Bye.

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Kryten tells everyone that the matter paddle transmits matter in digital form from one place to another at the speed of light - he is very clear on this point. He then locates Waxworld, which is 200,000 light years away. Okay - so when they use the matter paddle to transmit themselves to Waxworld, why doesn't it take them 200,000 years to get there?